Exhibition of Graphic Design students.
Curated by Enrico Parisio, in collaboration with: Caterina Di Rienzo, lecturer in art psychology, and Massimiliano Napoli, lecturer in the semiotics of art.
Opening: Tuesday 11 June at 18.30. – AgorArt – Clivo Rutario, 53 – Rome.
The exhibition will be open to the public until 13 June 2024.
Critical text by Massimiliano Napoli
As part of a broader reflection on the symbolic heritage of contemporary times, particularly concerning the cultural baggage of the more recent generations (Gen Z and Alpha), the concept of a post-Oedipal civilization (Safouan 2019) emerges as a potential analytical tool capable of accounting for the complexity of the “lived experiences of meaning” (Basso Fossali 2008) of the 21st century.
In a social context where the symbolic apparatus of the 20th century, although vivid in the collective imagination (consider the Family, School, or Nation), has largely lost its value-driven effectiveness, the new generations clearly struggle to find new points of reference on the professional front, in family and friendship relationships, and in the sphere of identity.
According to some, this struggle underlies all those youth discourses and practices—as well as a growing spread of new forms of loneliness, depression, anxiety, etc.—that seem to stage the “body proper” as the last bastion of the Self: a strenuous defense of that ipseity (Ricœur 2009 [1991]) that entails continuous efforts to rewrite one’s expressive surface (consider tattooing practices, muscle definition, the exaltation of clothing, dietary strategies, and so on).
However, with a more critical perspective, we can also reflect on the “historical” opportunity that Generations Z and Alpha are trying to seize to equip themselves with new symbolic apparatuses capable of generating cultural flows (Hannerz 1998) suitable for a world where those old paradigms we mentioned no longer function—at least for them.
And it is perhaps in a similar vein that we might attempt to interpret all these phenomena, which, under this light, appear as determined attempts to resemanticize the Being-in-the-world (De Martino 2019 [1977])—and, naturally, all the psychological and social dramas that this process generates.
From a panoptic perspective, we thus inaugurate the exhibition Post-Oedipal Generation: a series of works created by students of the RUFA Academy of Fine Arts aimed at stimulating ideas and suggestions around the complexity of contemporary times, its sense-making devices, and its peculiar expressive codes.
See the photos from the event
All the students involved
Art Direction Installations: Cantini Giulia.
Authors: Canali Alberto, Cappelleri Veronica, Cocchini Alexander, Crispolti Elisa, D’Acunto Francesco, De Castro Simone, De Simoni Giorgia, Di Veroli Afranio, Dipietro Riccardo, Fuccia Vincenzo, Fumanti Cecilia Patrizia, Gratteri Chiara, Grimaldi Emma, Iadeluca Sofia, Izzo Marco, Jaafari Gabriel Karim, Macone Lavinia, Maiorino Enrico, Mangiapelo Alessandra, Maragioglio Sabrina, Marchesi Benedetta, Martinez Daniela, Matteini Giorgia, Minunno Samuele, Moriconi Francesca, Napoleoni Valerio, Nunziata Andrea, Piacente Beatrice, Pietrolucci Michele, Pinardi Susanna, Polsinelli Leonardo, Seresini Azzurra, Soporan Alexandru Gabriel, Leo Boschin, Fracassi Claudia, Tomassi Cristina, Palombo Gianmario, Berardicurti Paolo, Di Ferdinando Niccolò.
Boccini Gabriele, D’Innocenzo Emanuele, Macone Lavinia, Pinardi Susanna, Jafari Gabriel Karim, Durante Alfonso, Cocchini Alexander, D’Acunto Francesco, Fumanti Cecilia, Minunno Samuele, Boschin Leo, Crispolti Elisa, Canali Alberto.